Delhi govt seeks support of people to fight dengue,

chikungunya New Delhi, Sep 17 (PTI) Grappling with rising cases ofdengue and chikungunya in the city, Delhi government todaysaid that all hospitals and fever clinics will remain open onSundays even as it appealed to people not to panic. Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said a massawareness campaign is being launched across the city tomorrowunder which people have been asked to devote at least 30minutes to check if there were stagnant water in theirresidential complexes and around it, to preventmosquito-breeding. "We appeal to people to devote at least half an hour timefrom their daily life and work towards this campaign. Thereare 42 lakh households in Delhi, and if all of you cooperatethen we can together root out dengue and chikungunya from thecity," he said. At least 15 people have died due to chikungunyacomplication and 18 have succumbed to dengue this season. Over1,700 cases of chikungunya have been reported in the nationalcapital while dengue has affected more than 1,100 people. Delhi government has been under attack from oppositionparties for "failing" to check the spread of the twovector-borne diseases. Jain said, in the meeting yesterday with Union HealthMinister J P Nadda, "I had requested him to reserve at least10 per cent of the beds in Central government-run hospitalslike RML, Safdarjung and Lady Hardinge, and they have agreedto it. So, 1,000 additional beds would now be available inhospitals here." "We appeal to people to not panic. All adequatearrangements are there in all hospitals, run under Delhigovernment or Centre or MCD," he added. The minister said prevention is better than cure and ifpeople can "check for stagnation water in flower pots,utensils, tyres and remove them, then sources ofmosquito-breding would be removed." On the issue of helpline for fogging not being answeredpromptly, "These are MCD helplines for fogging. We will lookinto the complaints and address the issue," he said. PTI KNDRG